TAMPA, Fla. — The Sharks lost Erik Karlsson during pregame warmups. Then, they dropped the rematch against the NHL’s top team.

The Tampa Bay Lightning avenged the loss that ended their 16-game point streak on Jan. 5, earning a 6-3 win on home ice as the Sharks tried to make due without a pair of Olympic-caliber defensemen against the NHL’s highest-scoring offense.

Karlsson, who’s fighting a lower-body injury, left the ice during pregame warmups, getting scratched just before puck drop and replaced by Joakim Ryan on the Sharks blue line. Marc-Edouard Vlasic missed his seventh straight game with an upper-body injury.

The Lightning opened the scoring at 3:32 of the first when Mathieu Joseph fired home the rebound of an Anthony Cirelli shot. Alex Killorn put them ahead 2-0 at 17:51 of the opening frame, jumping on a loose puck in the high slot and beating Martin Jones on his blocker side.

The Sharks cut the lead in half with just 21 seconds left in the period, capitalizing on their second power play chance. Evander Kane scored his 18th off a slick through-the-slot pass from Timo Meier. Joe Thornton also picked up a helper on the play.

Kane tied the game just 58 seconds into the second, chasing down his own rebound off the end boards and flipping a backhander past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Joonas Donskoi and Radim Simek recorded the assists.

After that, the Sharks effort to earn a second win against the Lightning fell apart as Kevin Labanc’s audition on Logan Couture’s line went south. Labanc earned a look on the Sharks second line after DeBoer demoted rookie Lukas Radil. After the Sharks morning practice Saturday, DeBoer said that Labanc needed to prove that he isn’t a defensive liability.

Labanc got caught being a spectator when he let former-Sharks prospect Yanni Gourde beat him to a Steven Stamkos rebound off the end boards, scoring the tie-breaking goal at 7:29 of the second. Then, Labanc committed an unnecessary cross-checking penalty in the offensive zone, setting the stage for Victor Hedman’s goal on a 5-on-3 power play that put the Lightning ahead 4-2 at 12:01 of the middle frame.

Stamkos added to the Lightning’s lead at 5:08 of the third, dancing into the slot and firing a shot into the top-left corner. He scored his second of the game with a blast from the left circle on a Lightning power play at 14:15 of the final stanza. Marcus Sorensen netted a garbage time goal in the game’s final minute.

The loss ended Jones’ eight-game winning streak.

Karlsson left the ice early in pregame warmups, an indication that his lower-body injury might be more serious than initially thought.

The two-time Norris Trophy winner is dealing with a lower-body injury that kept him off the ice for a large chunk of the third period of the Sharks win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday. After the game, DeBoer said he limited Karlsson’s third period ice time for “precautionary” reasons. Karlsson logged 25:48 of ice time one day later as the Sharks lost to the Arizona Coyotes, posting a minus-4 rating while committing eight giveaways. He was reportedly walking with a limp in the Sharks locker room after the game.

In the wake of Wednesday’s game, Karlsson missed practice on Friday and sat out of the team’s optional morning skate on Saturday. Still, DeBoer insisted that Karlsson would suit up in Tampa Saturday night, saying that he wasn’t at risk of further aggravating his injury by playing.

At this point, the severity of Karlsson’s injury is unclear. The Sharks haven’t set a timetable for his return.

The Sharks will return to action against the Florida Panthers on Monday, the second game of a four-game road trip that will lead the team into All Star Weekend to be hosted in San Jose.